Should Staff get paid?

[Skadoodle]

I guess this arose from my other thread about the server dying, ended up talking about the hard life of being a staff member

I believe staff members should be getting paid. They are working for the server to maintain an integral part of order and making sure nobody breaks the server in half.

Seriously all it takes to break the server is 1 guy with 1 gun that is sick of playing and goes on an rdm spree, killing 20 people and making the entire server mad because they lost their stuff to some dumbass rdmer. Staff need to be there all the time to shut that shit down before it even starts.

Staff right now don't get paid, they are volunteers, they enjoy the server and want to support it with their time and attention.

The problem is this: if the volunteers go away, the server breaks because uh oh no more staff on and everyone can rdm

Imagine if a town has its police force comprised entirely of volunteers that didn't get paid?


I believe staff should either: 1. get a cash bonus in the form of a paypal check at the end of the month based on their activity and tickets handled (don't think big numbers here say you get a $100 paypal for the month because you're doing a good job as staff)
2. the top 10 most active staff would get either a steam game or a steam giftcard or an amazon giftcard for their efforts and award them for upholding the server to sub-minge status

This server has the money to invest, they sponsored PsySyndicate and a bunch of other creators so obviously they like investing money for the good of the server, I believe paying your staff is a good investment to keep the players happy.

 

[evhn]

nah fuck them

 

[Gurra]

Would be very nice and well-deserved, but we usually got around 40 staff members so it wouldn't be much per person. I think pretty much everyone here is involved for the passion, experience and potential learnings that the project can bring. I've never taken personal compensation from Monolith but I think I've learnt a great deal and it's a fun hobby with friends who I've known for a long time now.

I currently reserve payments for developers because their work is very much an investment for the future that we all enjoy together. I think the staff team also appreciate these updates a great deal. There aren't so many developers so the amount I can pay each of them is, hopefully, decent for something on the side. In addition to that, I guess it's also a question of supply and demand - developers are highly demanded, but the supply is low. We really need good developers and retaining such is understandably expensive. We're fortunate to have developers who are primarily motivated by passion and learnings, but some compensation for their valuable work is a very understandable expectation.

Two notes. 1. Might seem like we're swimming in money because we can pay YouTubers for some promotional videos, but keep in mind that it's an investment. We almost always make the same amount back that we paid the YouTuber because it brings in new players. In some sense, development and updates have a similar effect. 2. Our expenses are unfortunately very high, and that's not counting development. Hosting and in particular our DDOS mitigation is pricey, but arguably well-worth it since a server that goes down all the time isn't very fun for anyone here. I've ran servers that crashed or went down due to attacks all the time - it's awful and demotivating for players and staff alike. Some impressive communities have had to close entirely because of it in the past.

And then a final point. Even though expenses are high, we do have some savings. However, we intend to invest these in something ambitious that I hope and think all of you, including the staff team, will be very excited about and enjoy a great deal. Investing in visionary, ambitious and yes - risky - development is how Monolith came to exist and thrive. It's what makes us unique and we must never loose it. It's more important now than at any point since we launched.

With this said, the staff team no doubt deserve all of our, and in particular mine as management's, deep gratitude. They're doing a stellar job, are really diligent people and I sincerely hope it's a good experience for them. I was just talking to some on the Discord and I do very much try to listen to their feedback so that I can support in making their experience better when possible. Huge credit to our staff team, they're absolutely fundamental to what we have here together.

 

[Skadoodle]

Would be very nice and well-deserved, but we usually got around 40 staff members so it wouldn't be much per person. I think pretty much everyone here is involved for the passion, experience and potential learnings that the project can bring. I've never taken personal compensation from Monolith but I think I've learnt a great deal and it's a fun hobby with friends who I've known for a long time now.

Would be very nice and well-deserved, but we usually got around 40 staff members so it wouldn't be much per person. I think pretty much everyone here is involved for the passion, experience and potential learnings that the project can bring. I've never taken personal compensation from Monolith but I think I've learnt a great deal and it's a fun hobby with friends who I've known for a long time now.

I currently reserve payments for developers because their work is very much an investment for the future that we all enjoy together. I think the staff team also appreciate these updates a great deal. There aren't so many developers so the amount I can pay each of them is, hopefully, decent for something on the side. In addition to that, I guess it's also a question of supply and demand - developers are highly demanded, but the supply is low. We really need good developers and retaining such is understandably expensive. We're fortunate to have developers who are primarily motivated by passion and learnings, but some compensation for their valuable work is a very understandable expectation.

Two notes. 1. Might seem like we're swimming in money because we can pay YouTubers for some promotional videos, but keep in mind that it's an investment. We almost always make the same amount back that we paid the YouTuber because it brings in new players. In some sense, development and updates have a similar effect. 2. Our expenses are unfortunately very high, and that's not counting development. Hosting and in particular our DDOS mitigation is pricey, but arguably well-worth it since a server that goes down all the time isn't very fun for anyone here. I've ran servers that crashed or went down due to attacks all the time - it's awful and demotivating for players and staff alike. Some impressive communities have had to close entirely because of it in the past.

And then a final point. Even though expenses are high, we do have some savings. However, we intend to invest these in something ambitious that I hope and think all of you, including the staff team, will be very excited about and enjoy a great deal. Investing in visionary, ambitious and yes - risky - development is how Monolith came to exist and thrive. It's what makes us unique and we must never loose it. It's more important now than at any point since we launched.

With this said, the staff team no doubt deserve all of our, and in particular mine as management's, deep gratitude. They're doing a stellar job, are really diligent people and I sincerely hope it's a good experience for them. I was just talking to some on the Discord and I do very much try to listen to their feedback so that I can support in making their experience better when possible. Huge credit to our staff team, they're absolutely fundamental to what we have here together.

Yeah I understand most of what you're saying makes sense

Yes developers deserve to get paid 100% their job is stressful and boring and takes a lot of dedication and not many people go for that career path so yeah absolutely

Ofc sponsorships are investment that if executed well bring economic benefit back so they are worth it. However I also believe staff members are an investment of their own, just not the kind of investment you can easily track on a balance sheet and say we paid $ this much and got $ this much back. It's a more abstract investment: think of how many players would continue their premium subscriptions if they knew at least some staff was on 24/7 and they knew everyone was following the rules and everyone was having the best experience possible (sheesh I'd sub again in a second if I knew that were the case for certain)

I understand expenses are high: the cost of servers, developers, the website and probably a lot more things

However I just want to ask this: Is it not possible, under any circumstances, to give staff members something, /anything/ for their effort? Forget the paypal chech that's just not gonna happen but is it really a stretch to ask for say - every month the top 5 most active staff members get a steam game of their choice under $30? Ofc it's not much but you're not gonna ever be paying them a salary, I'm asking about just giving them a gift, a token of appreciation, give them that little bump of encouragement, motivation? Not to mention people who are on the fence about joining the staff team already, this could be the nudge they need to make them decide to join.

 

[Bobby Hive]

Yeah I understand most of what you're saying makes sense

Yes developers deserve to get paid 100% their job is stressful and boring and takes a lot of dedication and not many people go for that career path so yeah absolutely

Ofc sponsorships are investment that if executed well bring economic benefit back so they are worth it. However I also believe staff members are an investment of their own, just not the kind of investment you can easily track on a balance sheet and say we paid $ this much and got $ this much back. It's a more abstract investment: think of how many players would continue their premium subscriptions if they knew at least some staff was on 24/7 and they knew everyone was following the rules and everyone was having the best experience possible (sheesh I'd sub again in a second if I knew that were the case for certain)

I understand expenses are high: the cost of servers, developers, the website and probably a lot more things

However I just want to ask this: Is it not possible, under any circumstances, to give staff members something, /anything/ for their effort? Forget the paypal chech that's just not gonna happen but is it really a stretch to ask for say - every month the top 5 most active staff members get a steam game of their choice under $30? Ofc it's not much but you're not gonna ever be paying them a salary, I'm asking about just giving them a gift, a token of appreciation, give them that little bump of encouragement, motivation? Not to mention people who are on the fence about joining the staff team already, this could be the nudge they need to make them decide to join.

But your talking about a Garry's Mod Community here. Most people who apply for staff are not expecting a paycheck under any circumstances and I've never seen a single staff member ask about/demanding compensation for their time on Monolith. I think this is a great topic and discussion, but we all know that the answer is that staff will most likely never be paid or compensated for their time on Monolith and I don't think I see anyone ever complaining about that now or in the future.

 

[Gurra]

Ofc sponsorships are investment that if executed well bring economic benefit back so they are worth it. However I also believe staff members are an investment of their own, just not the kind of investment you can easily track on a balance sheet and say we paid $ this much and got $ this much back. It's a more abstract investment: think of how many players would continue their premium subscriptions if they knew at least some staff was on 24/7 and they knew everyone was following the rules and everyone was having the best experience possible (sheesh I'd sub again in a second if I knew that were the case for certain)

However I just want to ask this: Is it not possible, under any circumstances, to give staff members something, /anything/ for their effort? Forget the paypal chech that's just not gonna happen but is it really a stretch to ask for say - every month the top 5 most active staff members get a steam game of their choice under $30? Ofc it's not much but you're not gonna ever be paying them a salary, I'm asking about just giving them a gift, a token of appreciation, give them that little bump of encouragement, motivation? Not to mention people who are on the fence about joining the staff team already, this could be the nudge they need to make them decide to join.

A paid staff team would be an investment, but probably not a net-positive one financially. We're operating on a pretty limited scale and whatever minimal payment I could make to 40 people would not really impact how much time they commit to the community. It shouldn't really, it'd be too little money to justify them putting more time into it than they otherwise would.

I agree that reasonable gifts is a nice concept, something friendly like a game raffle now and then maybe. Although, there's some complicated tax laws involved in that which I'd need to review first.. Since buying games with company money might not be something the authorities like. But yeah, it's a good discussion to have in our management and in the staff team. Tokens of appreciation and encouragement are important.

 

[Sushi]

Use a little bit of budget to pay the developers to come up with neat skins, cars, weapons, perms, etc. that are available to the staff only. Even if they resign staff, they get to keep it for "serving time" on the server. Have higher tier rewards for higher positions. Staff of the year awards. Having bragging rights of really cool specialty items, awards, maybe even my name imprinted on a map somewhere, etc. These are things that would make me happy as a volunteer staff and motivate me to be more productive and active.

That is my vote.

 

[Credence]

No.

 

[Bobby McJones]

Yeah I think so, it's basically a job they have to be on everyday and maintain the server they need some kind of recognition for their good work

 

[Bob Ross]

Use a little bit of budget to pay the developers to come up with neat skins, cars, weapons, perms, etc. that are available to the staff only. Even if they resign staff, they get to keep it for "serving time" on the server. Have higher tier rewards for higher positions. Staff of the year awards. Having bragging rights of really cool specialty items, awards, maybe even my name imprinted on a map somewhere, etc. These are things that would make me happy as a volunteer staff and motivate me to be more productive and active.

That is my vote.

why should devs get money if they don't fix anything they all hyped 2.0 just to take away cargo and the phone has been broken since they released it i think it only worked for like a week

 

[Gurra]

why should devs get money if they don't fix anything

They do really good work imo, but this is not their full-time job so we have to keep expectations reasonable on the occasional bugs. If it was their full-time job, we wouldn't afford them, even with a lot more Premium members.

As mentioned, we're also focused on something new and exciting that I think everyone will appreciate highly when the time comes. To me, this is vital. When I founded Monolith, it was with an ambitious vision and willingness to assume risk in relation to pursuing something uncertain. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that level of ambition beyond our comfort-zone. We need to assume that again to push Monolith to the next level, and to be candid - survive long-term.

 

[PhaseBootz]

No, especially when they're borderline useless. Paying useless doesn't solve anything

 

[Credence]

It's a volunteer role and staff that reach admin get FREE premium which is payment enough and more than they currently deserve since most staff now are so damn lazy and can't be arsed to take sits or get on the server. Shout out to the few staff that so take tickets tho you know who you are.

 

[WhiteTiger]

doesnt staff already get free premium? thats also something decent.

 

[DK.]

I believe Admin and up do, mods don’t.

 

[WhiteTiger]

I believe Admin and up do, mods don’t.

Thats a big shame, Mod admin SA all are equally usefull on the server as they can stop a guy massrdming or a proppush minge, what use is it if mods die out before they get to admin stage? mods who leave or just go inactive will never reach Admin Stage ofc staff team is shrinking lol.

 

[puvz]

The server don't make enough to pay the staff. They all know its volunteer work from the start. No they shouldn't get paid especially if they are all slacking off like they have been recently. Plus they get IC benefits depending on what rank they are.

 

[DevulTj]

Thats a big shame, Mod admin SA all are equally usefull on the server as they can stop a guy massrdming or a proppush minge, what use is it if mods die out before they get to admin stage? mods who leave or just go inactive will never reach Admin Stage ofc staff team is shrinking lol.

You'd get people applying for mod just for premium/to get paid btw

 

[WhiteTiger]

You'd get people applying for mod just for premium/to get paid btw

Thats a possiblity but i can assure you its easier to make 80k and then buy prem than to endure the torture of being a staff member and if theres a poor soul who applies just for the prem you can weed him out and demote him if he fucks up
its not rocket science

 

[Valentino]

You'd get people applying for mod just for premium/to get paid btw

I mean as long as they do their staff duties right? Same with irl jobs.

Anyway, if backpay will be a thing I +support, if not, -neutral. Seriously though, don't ever see this happening.